Chapter 20 – Foreign Policy (1865-1914)

1.  How did U.S. foreign policy after the Civil War represent a major shift in U.S. relations with the rest of the world?

2.  What was the primary motivation in the U.S. making this shift in foreign policy?

Seward, Alaska, and the French in Mexico

3.  What is the comparison between William Seward and John Quincy Adams?

4.  What were Seward’s most significant accomplishments as Secretary of State in the 1860s?

a.  ______

b.  ______

c.  ______

d.  ______

5.  From whom did the U.S. acquire Alaska? For how much? What did Seward’s critics call Alaska?

The “New Imperialism”

6.  What two economic factors caused the U.S. to intensify its foreign involvement?

a.  ______

b.  ______

7.  How did advocates of expansionist foreign policies hope to accomplish their goals?

8.  How did Darwin’s concept of survival of the fittest translate into U.S. foreign policy?

9.  How did the concept of Manifest Destiny translate into U.S. foreign policy?

10.  Define imperialism:

11.  With what other countries did imperialists believe the U.S. needed to compete to survive?

12.  Who were the leading advocates of American expansionism?

13.  On what grounds did Reverend Josiah Strong advocate American expansion in his book, Our Country: Its Possible Future and Present Crisis?

14.  What political party most supported American expansionism, and who were its two leading advocates?

15.  Who wrote the book, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History (1890), and what significant influence did his book have?

16.  How did the popular media influence U.S. foreign policy?

17.  What did the meeting of the first Pan-American Conference in Washington, D.C. accomplish, and what is its legacy?

18.  Where was one of the most important uses of the Monroe Doctrine in the 19th century, and how did affect U.S. Latin American relations?

19.  How did the situation in Venezuela represent a major turning point in U.S.-British relations?

The Spanish-American War

20.  What factors were used to justify U.S. intervention in Cuba?

a.  ______

b.  ______

c.  ______

21.  Define jingoism, and explain how it affected U.S. foreign policy?

22.  Why did presidents Cleveland and McKinley oppose imperialistic foreign policy?

23.  Briefly explain how each of the following contributed to eventual U.S. intervention in Cuba:

a.  Cuban Revolt ______

b.  Yellow Press ______

c.  De Lome Letter ______

d.  Sinking of the USS Maine ______

24.  What ultimately became the biggest factor in influencing President McKinley to go against his better judgment and send a war message to Congress?

25.  What condition did the Teller Amendment set on the war against Spain in Cuba?

26.  Where did the war begin? Why?

27.  Why did war receive the nickname, “The Splendid Little War”?

28.  What role did Theodore Roosevelt play in starting the Spanish-American War?

29.  What proved to be the most fatal aspect of the U.S. invasion of Cuba?

30.  What was the most celebrated event of the war with Spain, and what role did Theodore Roosevelt play in it?

31.  From whom did the U.S. acquire Hawaii?

32.  What finally convinced anti-imperialist President McKinley to complete the annexation of Hawaii in 1898?

33.  What were the three main terms of the Paris Peace Treaty that ended the Spanish-American War?

a.  ______

b.  ______

c.  ______

34.  What were the main arguments of those who opposed the acquisition of the Philippines?

35.  How did Filipino nationalists react to U.S. annexation of the Philippines?

36.  What was the constitutional question involved in the Insular Cases?

37.  How did the Supreme Court settle the Insular Cases?

38.  To what did the Platt Amendment require Cuba to agree?

a.  ______

b.  ______

c.  ______

d.  ______

39.  What was the long-term effect of the Platt Amendment?

40.  What were the most positive consequences of the Spanish-American War?

a.  domestic - ______

b.  foreign - ______

Open Door Policy in China

41.  What motivated Secretary of State John Hay’s policy toward China?

42.  Define spheres of influence:

43.  What did Secretary Hay do to prevent the U.S. from losing access to the lucrative trade in China?

Did it work?

44.  What was the Chinese response to increased foreign interest in China?

45.  What was the long-term effect of Secretary Hay’s 2nd note to the imperialist powers involved in China?

Complete the chart “The Imperialist Presidents” for the last three sections of Ch. 20

·  Theodore Roosevelt’s Big-Stick Policy

·  William Howard Taft and Dollar Diplomacy

·  Woodrow Wilson and Moral Diplomacy